Researcher profile

Robert Rosenbaum

Robert Rosenbaum contributes to research discovery and scholarly infrastructure.

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Published work

3 published item(s)

preprint2026arXiv

Empirical scaling laws in balanced networks with conductance-based synapses

Strongly coupled, recurrent, balanced network models have been successful in describing and predicting many phenomena observed in cortical neural recordings. However, most balanced network models use current-based synapse models in place of more realistic, conductance-based models. Conductance-based synapse models predict unrealistically small membrane potential variability. On the other hand, introducing realistic levels of spike time correlations to models with current-based synapses predicts unrealistically large membrane potential variability. We use computer simulations to show that these two effects can cancel: Recurrent network models with conductance-based synapses and spike time correlations produce more realistic, moderate levels of membrane potential variability. Consistent with recent work on feedforward networks, our results show that including more realistic modeling assumptions produces more realistic dynamics, but only if when two modeling assumptions are included together.

preprint2022arXiv

Evaluating the extent to which homeostatic plasticity learns to compute prediction errors in unstructured neuronal networks

The brain is believed to operate in part by making predictions about sensory stimuli and encoding deviations from these predictions in the activity of "prediction error neurons." This principle defines the widely influential theory of predictive coding. The precise circuitry and plasticity mechanisms through which animals learn to compute and update their predictions are unknown. Homeostatic inhibitory synaptic plasticity is a promising mechanism for training neuronal networks to perform predictive coding. Homeostatic plasticity causes neurons to maintain a steady, baseline firing rate in response to inputs that closely match the inputs on which a network was trained, but firing rates can deviate away from this baseline in response to stimuli that are mismatched from training. We combine computer simulations and mathematical analysis systematically to test the extent to which randomly connected, unstructured networks compute prediction errors after training with homeostatic inhibitory synaptic plasticity. We find that homeostatic plasticity alone is sufficient for computing prediction errors for trivial time-constant stimuli, but not for more realistic time-varying stimuli. We use a mean-field theory of plastic networks to explain our findings and characterize the assumptions under which they apply.

preprint2020arXiv

Synaptic Plasticity in Correlated Balanced Networks

The dynamics of local cortical networks are irregular, but correlated. Dynamic excitatory--inhibitory balance is a plausible mechanism that generates such irregular activity, but it remains unclear how balance is achieved and maintained in plastic neural networks. In particular, it is not fully understood how plasticity induced changes in the network affect balance, and in turn, how correlated, balanced activity impacts learning. How does the dynamics of balanced networks change under different plasticity rules? How does correlated spiking activity in recurrent networks change the evolution of weights, their eventual magnitude, and structure across the network? To address these questions, we develop a general theory of plasticity in balanced networks. We show that balance can be attained and maintained under plasticity induced weight changes. We find that correlations in the input mildly, but significantly affect the evolution of synaptic weights. Under certain plasticity rules, we find an emergence of correlations between firing rates and synaptic weights. Under these rules, synaptic weights converge to a stable manifold in weight space with their final configuration dependent on the initial state of the network. Lastly, we show that our framework can also describe the dynamics of plastic balanced networks when subsets of neurons receive targeted optogenetic input.